After 3-1 Win Over Milan, Dortmund Shift Focus Back To The Bundesliga

It is a remarkable achievement; Borussia Dortmund has advanced from the so-called Champions League group of death with one game to spare. On Tuesday, the Black and Yellows beat Italian side AC Milan 3-1 thanks to goals by Marco Reus (10’ penalty), Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (59’) and Karim Adeyemi (69’). Samu Chukwueze scored the only Milan goal (37’).

The result is even more remarkable, given the fact that Gregor Kobel had to come up big in the first minutes of the game to stop a penalty by Olivier Giroud. With ten points from five games, Dortmund can now win Group F with a draw against French giants PSG at home on matchday 6.

This result is remarkable because it has come off the backs of a tumultuous international break. Multiple reports from Germany, indicated that there was a rift developing between sporting director Sebastian Kehl, CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, and head coach Edin Terzic. Terzic, in fact, seemed on the robes just last Saturday after his side went down early 2-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

A defeat in that game would have been the third Bundesliga defeat in a row, and at that stage, it would have been impossible to imagine a future with Terzic in charge. Dortmund, however, turned that game around to win 4-2 and then, just three days later, produced a never-in-doubt victory over Italian giant AC Milan.

Between the two victories, Watzke also pushed back against media reports that there was a rift within the upper echelon at the club. “We won’t let the media destroy us to generate clicks,” Watzke said at the club’s annual general meeting on Sunday. “We want reporting that is analytically independent of the media. We have 24 points from 12 games. Two points per game.”But Watzke also admitted that he would have liked to see more from the Black and Yellows. “If we’re honest, we would have hoped for two or three more,” Watzke said.

In a season in which Leverkusen (34 points) and Bayern Munich (32 points) seem to run away at the top of the table after matchday 12, two or three points would not have been enough to keep pace with the top clubs in the Bundesliga. Dortmund currently sits fourth, just one point ahead of Leipzig and three points behind Stuttgart. Ten points behind Leverkusen, the Black and Yellows, in fact, seem to be out of the title race already.

With that in mind, success in the Champions League seemed to be even more crucial. A draw or defeat to Milan would have caused a situation in which Dortmund needed to expend all their energy on the final matchday against giants PSG to advance from Group F. That scenario has now been avoided, giving Terzic room to breathe ahead of a crucial fixture against Leverkusen this Sunday.

“We have to deliver once again in two weeks,” Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said after the game. “If it’s only first place at stake, it will be a wonderful occasion in a wonderful atmosphere. We’ve now grown and are a squad that is ready to work on the pitch. We’ve only had slip-ups against Bayern, in Stuttgart, which felt like a 4-0 defeat, and in Paris.”

One slip-up in the Champions League and two in the Bundesliga; the former hasn’t derailed the club’s Champions League ambitions, but the latter means every game domestically is now a final. Starting with the game in Leverkusen and although the occasion against PSG will be great for the fans, from the club’s perspective, it will now be just a break from trying to repair a domestic campaign that is still in danger of going off the rails.

Manuel Veth is the host of the Bundesliga Gegenpressing Podcast and the Area Manager USA at Transfermarkt. He has also been published in the Guardian, Newsweek, Howler, Pro Soccer USA, and several other outlets. Follow him on Twitter: @ManuelVeth and on Threads: @manuveth